1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a locking apparatus of a heavy-duty truck side-gate, and more particularly, to a locking apparatus of a side-gate configured to be configured to operate a locker at the bottom of the post so that opening of the side-gate is easily allowed (rotation of the side-gate to a lower part of a floor can be easily allowed).
2. Description of Related Art
Trucks with various types and sizes have been produced, depending on the type and weight of cargo.
Of these, in a case of a truck provided with a loading space having no roof, a floor (see reference numeral 7 in FIG. 2) capable of loading the cargo behind a driver's seat is provided, and a side-gate 1 is rotatably attached to both sides and rear edges of the floor on the floor (as illustrated in FIG. 1B) to prevent the cargo from falling out.
The side-gate is installed on a side of the floor one by one depending on the size of the truck, but in the case of a heavy truck, since it is difficult to manually open and close the side-gate 1 due to increased size and weight of the side-gate 1, as illustrated in FIG. 1A, two or more side-gates 1 are produced in a structure that is arranged side by side along the length of the vehicle body.
In the case of a truck in which two or more side-gates are installed on one side of the floor, as illustrated in FIG. 1A, posts 4 vertically raised and fixed to the floor are installed between the adjacent side-gates 1, and lockers 5 mounted to be rotatable on the post 4 are configured to fix hooks 2 (installed on the side-gate).
The hook 2 is installed at a position that can come into contact with the post 4 at the top of the outer surface of the side-gate 1, and has a shape formed with grooves 3 to allow entry of the locker 5.
The locker 5 projects from the outer surface of the post 4 and pivots. When the side-gate 1 is closed in a state of pivoting upward (a dotted line state in FIG. 1A) and the hook 2 is located below a rotary axis of the locker 5, the locker 5 pivots downward to restrict the hook 2 (a solid line state in FIG. 1A), thereby preventing pivoting of the side-gate 1.
Meanwhile, since a heavy truck carries a large amount of load, a leaf spring with an increased thickness (or with an increased number of lamination) to bear a large load is used. Thus, a vehicle posture (c) as a height from a ground to the top of a chassis frame 6 c becomes higher than a light truck.
Since a height (b) of the side-gate also increases with the increase of cargo on board, a height (a) of a deck lock as a height from the ground to the rotary axis of the locker 3 also increases.
That is, there has been a problem in which the length of the truck and the load capacity increase, the vehicle posture (c) and the height of the side-gate 1 increase, and thus the height of the deck lock becomes higher to a level that may cause inconvenience of a worker, and thus, there has been a need to solve such a problem.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.